TTN: Section 1: Prologue - Chapter 5

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

So not much has really happened so far, mostly background and meeting characters, but I'm still enjoying it.

I wonder how long Winter's deception will last.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

So far through part 1, the only real hint of fantasy is from the prologue when first they mention a wizard being on the arriving ship and when they kill the girl and interrogate her after she's dead.

It feels more like military fiction so far. Still enjoying it though. Winter's unit is gelling and they come to her aid when her old sergeant and his cronies come to mess with her.

There is political motivations to a lot of this so far. I'm still not sure what to make of the new cornel. He seems likable, but he's obviously hiding something.

Why is he in such a hurry, and what makes him so confident they can win against such overwhelming odds?

My guess is that his 'manservant' is really the wizard, and that's his ace in the hole. I have no evidence of that at all however.

[Mark]

Its a very good read so far, author is very good at setting up the characters and giving just enough to keep us hooked.

[Bill]

Enjoying it so far. Hope we get more povs from the Khandarai side. Interested to see what kind of power the wizard has and if it will be enough to make up for the differences in size between the armies.

[Mpauli]

As everyone said this is a well done build-up section. I really like Winter and Marcus and enjoy the life of the regiment.

I agree that the manservant (Antonius? was something with A) seems to be a mage. there are two references to this, which made my Steven-Erikson-Sense tingle.

When he is first introduced by the colonel, he says that he is a wizard...quite plainly, although from the context you would think he is just praising his talents as a servant.

And when Marcus visits the colonel, he thinks about if the servant might have conjured up some special interior for the tent.
So, the manservant is in two scenes an in both he is referred to in a magic sense. No coincedence here.

I'm also looking forward to see more of the female spy. I think she will bring in the element of political intrigue.
Great start so far, really enjoying it.

[Sumant]

Really loving it so far and Alex is right the whole marching thing reminded me of Malazan and some what of Black company.

Marcus looks to me like a sensible character who does care for his soldiers.

Janus is a mystery and his cocky confidence must be due to something.

Winter got the squad to her side when she cleverly side tracked the order given to her by Dvires.

Also the author gives us peek into the side of redeemers, it's really hard to to judge any side.

[Scott]

I like seeing both sides to it, even if it's not much from the Kandarai's. Interested to see this Steel Ghost in action, seems like an ass kicker

Loving Marcus, especially his interactions with Janus. You can tell right from the start that he cares about his soldiers. The demonstration on the march was excellent, as well as his interest in keeping his alcoholic buddy from giving up

I had trouble at the start connecting with Winter, couldn't concentrate on anything but her being found it, but that quickly turned into admiration. Love how she connected with her squad. Bobby is awesome. I have a feeling one of those corporals is either going to sniff her out or already suspects

Great stuff, Wexler is an excellent writer; has a really nice, gentle pace to it and feel the action is going to ramp up now that we have character introductions done with

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Glad you're trying this series. I think it's excellent.

[Scott]

I kept meaning to get to it when I saw your reviews but something else always came up. Finally carved out some time to read the prologue yesterday and was pretty well hooked

Excited to follow the threads as I progress

[Sky]

totally forgot i wanted to read this earlier this year - now that i have some time will start in a few weeks.

[Andreas]

Just wanted to say "Hello" to this thread, as I've started the novel.

Wow, this runs smoothly. A couple of tropes (girl dressed as boy, the honourable captain etc.) in a nice setting.

Military Fantasy, but quite different from the Black Company. It is more similar to Promise of Blood - popcorn flintlock fantasy. But more from a GRRM angle, whereas Promise of Blood would be the Sanderson approach to flintlock. Does that make sense?

[Suzanne]

Glad you are reading this! I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you do too. What you said makes sense to me! I don't feel like its quite as dark as GRRM, and thank goodness it doesn't have as many characters and side characters =D But I can still see the comparison.

[Andreas]

I didn't think of dark but more at GRRM's try to capture a historical equivalent of mediaeval times. Whereas Sanderson is on the magical side of things.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Andreas wrote: "Military Fantasy, but quite different from the Black Company. It is more similar to Promise of Blood - popcorn flintlock fantasy. But more from a GRRM angle, whereas Promise of Blood would be the Sanderson approach to flintlock. Does that make sense?."

Yeah. That's exactly how I've described it to other people before. Especially the early SoIaF books that were more low fantasy, like this one is. Whereas as a student of Sanderson, Brian McClellan seems to have a similar approach to magic systems.